VIOLENCE CLOUDS NIAGARA'S TOURISM BATTLE

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- A few years ago, the road signs to the waterfalls here were vanishing so often that the state finally stopped replacing them.

And last year, when one sightseeing company erected a sign pointing to the falls, the billboard was painted over. When the owner restored the sign, it was defaced again.

Without directions, tourists generally stop for help at roadside "information booths" that they often assume to be official. Instead, these booths are run by rival sightseeing operators who promote their tours and steer business to hotels and motels paying a percentage for the bookings.

The booths, which business and political leaders have long accused of misleading visitors to suit their own interests, are locked in a battle for tourists that has now turned violent.

In the past month, firebombs ripped through two information booths. A crowded tour van was pelted with rocks. Gunshots have been fired at the home of the biggest tour operator. And motel owners have reported receiving death threats.

Meanwhile, some tourist industry officials lament the bruised image of this honeymoon capital, which had hoped to stem the recent decline in tourism. But most hotels and motels said business had fallen slightly from last year.

"People get ripped off, then they go home and tell their friends about it," said David Fleck, president of the city's Hotel and Motel Association. "When tourist information booths are getting bombed, people don't get a very good impression of Niagara Falls."

In addition, the strength of the U.S. dollar, tourist industry officials noted, is encouraging many travelers to visit the Canadian side of the falls, which already enjoys the reputation of being the cleaner and more attractive of the twin tourist cities as well as providing a better view of the falls.

The police have made no arrests in connection with any of the incidents here and declined to speculate on the causes.

SIGHTSEEING TOUR FEUD?

However, most local officials and business leaders here believe the violence stems from hostilities between the owners of the city's two largest sightseeing companies, Eugene Guido of Gray Lines and Benjamin Tirabassi of Bridal Veil, and the motels that do business with each of them.

"Everybody in town knows who's on which side," Guido said.

Guido and Tirabassi said they did not know who might be behind the attacks, nor did they have any knowledge about the removal or defacing of the signs to the waterfalls. But in separate interviews they said they were opposed to efforts to erect new signs.

"They'll find the waterfalls sooner or later," said Guido, a former narcotics detective who is the largest tour operator here. "But first, we want them to filter through our business community."

Without road signs to guide him to the waterfalls, Lawrence Peters, an Iowa tourist, was beckoned to a booth with a large sign reading "Scenic Information."

"It looks official," said Peters, who stopped for directions and emerged with a $36.95 sightseeing tour and a motel reservation.

The source of the hostility between Guido and Tirabassi, who once owned a motel and promoted Guido's tours, is unclear. However Tirabassi said: "I got tired of being under Gene Guido's thumb. He can decide which motels will be full and which will be empty."

Mayor Michael O'Laughlin, who has proposed several measures to erect new signs, said the City Council had consistently rejected those initiatives. "Gene Guido simply has the political clout," the mayor said. "He has the power."

With road signs pointing to the waterfalls, officials noted, tourists would be much less dependent on the information booths. But Donald Ketchum, regional director for the state Department of Transportation, said he finally gave up efforts to replace the vanishing signs. "You can't afford to run out there every week and put up a new sign," he said.

The information booths, the mayor charged, work to fool the tourists into believing they are official. In fact, he said, when city officials considered naming their official booth the "Niagara Falls Welcome Center," that precise name appeared on Tirabassi's information booth.

Fleck, the hotel association president and part owner of a downtown hotel, said the information booths commonly tell tourists that they will need "an extra $100,000 in insurance to go to Canada"; that the downtown area is "too urban, too dangerous"; that all hotels downtown are filled; and that "the Canadian bridge is only for tour buses." The information booth operators deny giving out such misleading information.

IT STARTED IN 1960

Efforts to control the flow of tourists here date to 1960 when the new Interstate 190 changed the traffic patterns leading to the waterfalls, taking business away from Route 62, once the gateway to the attraction.

In an effort to bring tourists back to Route 62, tour operators and motel owners turned to the information booths, dispensing free maps and directions while promoting motels along the strip.

The dispute here also involves a motel owner, John Monaco, who stopped promoting Guido's Gray Lines earlier this year and switched to Bridal Veil.

Guido has filed a $2 million suit against Monaco and Tirabassi, claiming they sent illegal pickets to his information stand with signs reading, "This is not an official tour booth."

Monaco operated the information booth at the Clarence Service Center on the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway until early August, when his license was revoked for failing to dispense information about other tours.